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The biggest accomplishments come from the smallest steps

Thu, Jan 1 2015

Musician. Composer. Loves a good fanfare.

A music career that spans more than 30 years is bound to have some game-changing realizations. How else could a youthful trumpet player with a love for playing music evolve into a seasoned composer with a passion for writing it?

“It’s been an interesting path. I had always thought my life would be in jazz—I never thought I’d end up in classical composition,” says Allan. “If you’d have told me in high school that in 20 years I’d be the composer in residence for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, I would have said you were nuts,” he laughs.

Allan first fell in love with music in junior high. But it was in high school—thanks to a great band program and a newly discovered love for jazz—that he solidified his ambition to actually pursue music as a career.

“When I graduated I had no back-up plan—zero,” he recalls. “I just thought, ‘I’m going into music. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m not good at anything else!’”

As a self-defined hard-core jazz trumpet player coming out of high school, Allan travelled to study in Toronto and kick-start his music career. A class in the music of Duke Ellington made him re-examine exactly what that music career might look like. “That’s where I really started getting interested in the music more than the players,” he recalls.

“ I came up with the melody and the accompaniment, wrote it all down and thought, ‘this is great!’ But then I realized I didn’t know what to do next. ” ALLAN GILLILAND

When he returned to Edmonton to complete his degree, two courses affirmed his emerging interest in composition—one in orchestration with renowned Canadian composer Malcolm Forsyth, and an electronic music class that required students to create original music.

“I realized I was becoming more interested in writing and less interested in just being a trumpet player in the band,” says Allan. “I was intrigued by how it all came together.”

Once he graduated, Allan freelanced as a trumpet player and finally decided to pursue his interest in composition. “I remember sitting down to write a piece for brass quintet—I came up with the melody and the accompaniment, wrote it all down and thought, ‘this is great!’ But then I realized I didn’t know what to do next.”

“Because in the jazz world what you do next is solo, and everyone improvises around that. But in the classical world, you write a development section; you develop those themes and you repeat them and you turn them upside down. I had none of those skills and I didn’t know what to do. And that’s when I became really interested in composition.”

He enrolled in private lessons with respected musician/composer Violet Archer, and over the next few years developed a portfolio that would eventually help earn him acceptance into the Masters in Composition program at the U of A. He hasn’t looked back since. “Once I got into my masters that was it—I was a composer,” he smiles.

Allan went on to serve as composer in residence with the ESO from 1999 to 2004, where he would add the Winspear Centre opening fanfare to his composition resume. Over his five years with the ESO, he threw himself into writing—even choosing to stop teaching and freelancing during that time to dedicate himself to the experience.

“I made this really conscious decision to free myself up, so I could come to every rehearsal and concert I wanted to, and just absorb the orchestra for as long as they were going to keep me there. I poured myself into it and I learned so much—it was really fantastic.

“That job gave me the commissioning career I still have today, and it gave me my position at MacEwan University. It brought me national exposure, and exposure to soloists, conductors and players. It gave me a stamp of credibility. That job changed my life without a doubt.”

And so it did. Allan has not stopped since that life-changing residency. Not only did he return to teaching, he helped build the university’s bachelor of music program, one of the few music degrees of its kind in North America. And although he wishes he was able to play more, he still finds time to “get the horn in the face” weekly with the River City Big Band. As for his composing career—well, it’s been successful to say the least. He even reached a pinnacle most musicians and composers only dream of when he went to Carnegie Hall in 2012, to witness the ESO play his trumpet concerto, “Dreaming of the Masters III.”

“When I took my bow, it was unbelievable—the highlight of my life,” he smiles.

And so it would seem, that with so much success behind him and so many new projects ahead (a cello concerto, symphony show and music for a theatrical production, to name a few), the evolution of the trumpet player may be complete, but the story of the composer is far from over.

Allan Gilliland is an assistant professor and chair of the Bachelor of Music in Jazz and Contemporary Popular Music. Learn more about this program at MacEwan.ca/MusicDegree.

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